Sunday Stash #57 – …With Molli Sparkles

by Molli Sparkles ·
Published January 4, 2014
· Updated October 24, 2015

Welcome to Sunday Stash with Molli Sparkles, now at its new home! Thank you Fiona of Finding Fifth for letting me adopt your baby. Now, what is Sunday Stash? It’s a weekly link up party where you can come meet others, show off any and all sewing supplies, new or otherwise, and then be encouraged to do it again!

There are a bunch of you out there who are going on fabric fasts for part or all of the coming year with Making Rebecca Lynne. Now you would think with my buying habits, and as the new host of Sunday Stash, that this would leave me a little cold. Not in the least! I think it is a brilliant idea, and I wish all those soon to be skinny minnies the best. I almost joined in myself, but upon seeing the fabric fasting competition, I thought I was already the real slim shady. (Please stand up! LR!) So instead, I’m going for fabric neutral.

Fabric neutral? You’ve heard of carbon neutral, right? Well for 2014, I’d like to stay fabric neutral. Same, same, but different! You see, I already have a lot of fabric I love and I fully intend on using it! Of course there are some bits and pieces I’d like to add to the collection this year, but I’m also in no hurry to buy yardage of fabric that doesn’t enthral me. We are all guilty of that “just because” fabric, right? Amen! Hallelujah! Praise Jesse to the J! So my participation in the fabric fast will be more derived out of a calculation to keep my stash level approximately the same (perhaps a bit less, if Mr. Sparkles has anything to say about it).

So many of you have asked, begged and pleaded, “Molli, please, please show us your complete stash!” Well since Sunday Stash has found its new permanent home, I figure now is the perfect time for me to show you all of the goods. This will also provide an interesting retrospective at this time next year to see how fabric neutral I remained.

I have my stash divided into five categories, which I like to think are pretty organized (most of the time). That being said, we’ve all been in that frenzied state where we are pulling one fabric, then another, and again, and again, until our whole stash is on the floor and we realize that fat quarter we are looking for was actually given away to Auntie Lou-Lou at the last family reunion because who knew you were gonna need neon, feed-sack repro in the maize colour way? But sometimes, you do. So yes, organized most of the time.

On the really good days those categories are:

My everyday play fabrics, fat quarters, or half yards. When it’s time to taste the rainbow, this is my first stop. I use these for quilt bees, scrap projects, swaps, and playing with colour palettes.

This section is comprised of solids, yardage, and batiks. That bottom row is mostly homespun, but the top left corner are Art Gallery Pure Elements. Delicious! The batik area is looking mighty slim after finishing Sparkleworks, time to restock!

This is the hoarding section. You’ll find all of my designer collections lingering here, waiting for divine inspiration. Get a Clue with Nancy Drew, Comma, Architextures, Notting Hill, Color Me Retro, Prince Charming, and Noteworthy to name just a few. I like seeing them grouped together, but they’ll most likely be mixed and matched when used.

This is the overflow box. Some further designer collections wanting to make the move to the hoarding section, some large quilt backs, and all those Japanese heavier weight fabrics awaiting cushion-hood and pouch-dom.

This final section of the room is my scrapping work station. The smaller tubs on the left are mostly scraps divided by colour, or used as re-sorting buckets. I also have a few of them reserved for specific notions, or pre-cuts. The larger tubs on the right are the projects I have on the go. As you can see there are some in there I may not have shown you yet!

So that’s my stash! All of it! So let’s see, what else?

Remember, this is a safe space to show off all new sewing supplies (when your significant other, or pet just doesn’t seem to care!). But wait, what if you don’t have anything new? I still encourage you to link up! How many times have you been shopping online for fabric, confronted with those tiny, illustrated swatches, and thought to yourself, “Motherfucker, how in the hell am I supposed to tell if that is eggplant, radiant orchid, or god damned cerise?” If so, you might have anger management issues. Toned down though, you might be like the rest of us, clearly wanting more information!

That’s why I want to see you link up fabric, new and old, photographed in lovely natural light, with as much manufacturing information as you know. That way the rest of the world can not only marvel in jealous splendour, but also delight in discovering if that’s the fabric they need or not! Plus, for all you fabric fasters, this might present some wonderful trading opportunities with other posters! Hello, it’s like shopping, but not!

Oh, and you want to host some of this business? Mmm hmm. Next week I will release a sign up sheet for first quarter hosting duties. The catch? You also have to do an international giveaway when you host. It’s all in line with being fabric neutral.

Finally, if you’ve got your own blog, grab the coded button below and tell the world you are proud to Sunday Stash with Molli Sparkles!

You were the obvious choice to inherit this! Rather like I was the obvious choice to inherit the Finish Along *ahem*

I love how you neatly hide away your scraps and things from your visitors – mine are right out there on shelves and scraps are in see through plastic bags in a DVD rack, I like to share the rainbow ;o)

Wow! I wish I was that organized with my stash, great work and I'm so jealous of your colors! I tend to completely overlook some of the colors only to be faced with 0 purples the night I'm making a rainbow bunting for a birthday party, horrors I tell you, real horrors!

I really like the idea of having an everyday box AND a hoarded box. I've got mine all mixed by color right now (except my Tula, which needed its own drawer) but even still, there are fabrics that I know I'm not going to use until the absolute right project hits. So much yum here!

I loved seeing the entirety of your stash! And you're absolutely right, these pics really do help us out when we need to know just how two fabrics will relate – I like to shop at the places that have pictures of projects made from the fabric I'm looking at for that very reason. Thanks for hosting!

Thanks for sharing the pics – having just been into my stash bins about an hour ago and been overwhelmed by the struggle to hunt through them, to see your method of folding and stacking with the ends up for ease of seeing what's there as soon as the lid is taken off makes me feel like a dunce! So simple and practical! I am heading to the spare room immediately to re-store the various fat quarters and yardage. Have a good week!

I like the idea of having an every day box. I keep my collections for special occasions out separately but everything else is in drawers by colour; yet there are always those fabrics that I go to and cut up the most over others which should really be in an "everyday" area…

I see, this is one of those "I'll show you mine, if you show me yours" games, isn't it? My stash was pretty well organized, but I've been pulling from it quite a bit recently, so it needs a reorg. I have a stack of fugly, mostly from early online purchases, that I am not certain what to do with. Thanks for showing us yours!

Fabric neutral is one of those things I've often tried to be, but never actually managed 😀 There's some blog I've spotted around and I can't remember who it is, but they'd do a running tally of Fabric In/Fabric Out, so to speak, which sort of made my stomach upset to think about just how much the ratio would skew heavy to IN for me.

Anyway, I always love seeing people's stash and how they organize them. Mine's a real shitshow right now. I'll only show if I manage to sort it out or if I wind up on TV in some kind of Hoarding, The Early Years show. (I mean, not a hoarder, as yet, but I can see where it would start because there's the little pile of stuff in my bedroom and the pile of stuff under the sewing room futon and the other pile on the craft table and the pile on the floor in front of my storage closet…)

Love your stash and how you have organized it, especially your scraps by color. Mine are all crammed in a basket which I hardly ever go into because I can't find anything. I haven't sewn with batik before and usually just overlook them but your Sparkleworks quilt is making me think I should try it. 🙂

Well what a neat and tidy stash you have there. Of course you took the photo on a good day, right? Mine is fairly sorted but I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and buy another box as I'm struggling to squeeze mine into my current containers and I may just have ordered some more fabric from equilter in their sale and possibly acquired just a smidgen or three at Spotlight recently. Its just like me trying to fit into my jeans after Christmas, might as well just go and buy a bigger pair/container!

I love seeing your wonderful stash. It has helped me seeing what other people are buying and how others pick out there fabrics. I have seen some fabric that I didn't know about too. I love it, and I really want a sneak peak in those wip bins. Hehehe Curiosity kills the Gemini. Especially this one. 🙂

It’s with much sadness that I have to sell my Juki longarm quilting machine and frame! Are you near Sydney and want to take me home? It’s barely used (one quilt!), but I don’t have space in my apartment to keep him set up. I’d rather see him in a good home with someone that will really use him hard. I’m asking $10k AUD, but that is extremely negotiable so it could be yours for a bargain price. Bargain price! Comes with a Grace frame, five and ten foot versions, bobbins, fabric leaders, and the machine head. Shoot me a…

Mr. Sparkles said he wanted a giant #cushion for the couch, and who am I to deny that beautiful face?! I used this @libselliott print from #truelovefabric called Wound Up. Started with a #quilt sandwich and went from there. More pics and process details to follow. ✨✨✨✨

#WIDRN This is how I’m creating my #logcabin blocks. It’s a mine field of organised chaos! Hmm... which string should I pick next? Eenie meenie minie who, catch a string by the blue, longer than the last, the next one must be you! ✨✨✨✨ #ngaqb2#menwhoquilt#blue

Log cabin blocks are so much fun! Strings for days! A few more of these to whip up, and I’ll be ready to add them to @bluenickelstudios#ngaqb2#quilt . ✨✨✨✨

Molli: "Yay! Finished cutting my 395, 2" squares."
Mr. Sparkles: "What?! How?! I thought that would take you a week!"
Molli: "Um, no again, only about an hour."
Mr. Sparkles: "I just don't understand."